Newswire

Boxer Arrested on Cocaine Charge

William Guthrie, who was kept from competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic boxing team last summer because he failed a drug test, was arrested in St. Louis on a cocaine charge Thursday, a day after he had won his second professional bout.

Guthrie, 22, was being held on a charge of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

A St. Louis police detective said in an affidavit accompanying the federal complaint that he had been told by an informer that Guthrie would sell cocaine to the informer. The informer arranged to buy four ounces of cocaine from Guthrie June 15 on a St. Louis street corner.

According to the affidavit, police staked out the intersection and converged on Guthrie after he arrived. After the boxer ran toward a telephone and dropped a carrying case onto a parking lot, officers spotted a bag containing four ounces of cocaine. Police also said they found two packets of cocaine in the boxer's underwear.